Japanese eating house marooned in Chinatown

Tokyo Diner offers conclusive proof that you needn't take out a second mortgage to enjoy Japanese food in London.

This is fast food, Tokyo-style.

The décor is crisp and minimalist, and if you don't know sushi from sumo, you'll be glad of the explanatory notes on the menu.

When your food arrives, pick up a set of chopsticks, snap them apart - it's recommended that you rub them together to rid them of splinters - and get stuck in.

Top seller is the soba noodle soup - thin brown buckwheat noodles in a soya broth.

It's pleasant, filling and very popular with the drop-by lunchtime trade.

Don't be afraid of slurping it, slurping is OK.

Or try the set lunch in a bento box of rice, noodles, sashimi and your choice of teriyaki.

Other bento favourites include the ton katsu bento, which is a kind of superior breadcrumbed pork escalope.

If you don't have appetite enough for a full-on bento box, skip the curries - they're a bit like school food - and head straight for the sushi and sashimi.

They too come in 'sets': try the nine-piece nigiri set, which is very good value, or the hoso-maki set, which comprises six pieces of salmon, three pieces of cucumber and three pieces of pickled radish.

To wash it all down, the Japanese beer Asahi is good, or there's complimentary Japanese tea.

For a special treat, try the rich, sweet plum wine, which is surprisingly moreish.

Japanese style, the Tokyo Diner does not accept tips.

Tokyo Diner
2 Newport Place, WC2H 7JJ